


Investigation

by TrippingHazard



Series: The Reintegration Act [2]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers: Prime
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-14 00:34:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5722933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrippingHazard/pseuds/TrippingHazard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Direct sequel to Reintegration: Ultra Magnus investigates a murder while Pharma plots against Knock Out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to part two; apologies for the delay. I hope you enjoy reading it!

" _Ironfist_ , what in Primus' name is going _on_?" Ultra Magnus roared as he kicked down the door to the monitor room. It had been locked and the control panel smashed to prevent it from being opened easily.

"Ironfist? Oh no..."

His assistant was lying on the floor next to his overturned chair, a puddle of energon spreading from beneath his head.

He raised his hand to his comm system. " _Knock Out. Pharma. Medical emergency in the monitor room._ "

"On my way," Knock Out replied almost instantly, and a ping of acknowledgement came from Pharma a few seconds later.

In the minute it took for Knock Out to arrive, Ultra Magnus moved the chair out of the way, shut down the planetary defence system, and reactivated the security cameras.

"Was it you who moved him?" Knock Out asked as he scrambled over the remains of the door with a massive medical kit under one arm.

"No. He appears to have a head wound, so I thought it best to wait for a medical professional."

"Good call. Someone else must have moved him, he's clearly been turned over."

The medic crouched over the little 'bot, quickly running a scanner over him. "Well, he's still got a weak spark, but he's been shot in the back of the head. I doubt I’ll be able to save him."

"Try anyway," Ultra Magnus snapped, looking up from trying to retrieve the security camera footage.

"Of course I'm going to _try_ ," Knock Out snapped back, red eyes flashing angrily as he glanced over his shoulder, "But I'm not going to  _sugarcoat_ it for you. If you want someone to hold your hand and tell you everything will be alright go find an _Autobot_ medic."

"You _are_ an Autobot medic. Get to work."

Knock Out showed no sign of having heard him. He was already rummaging through the medical kit, pulling out bandages and bags of processed energon, which could be pumped directly into a fuel line to replace what was leaking from the head wound, and miscellaneous other bits of medical equipment Ultra Magnus couldn’t name.

" _V_ _elocity, I need you to bring a gurney to the monitor room,_ " the medic said over his comm. " _The smallest one you can find. And the portable spark support machine. What? Yes. Yes. No. Stop asking questions and do as I say or I will come down there and toss you out the window!_ ”

Knock Out deemed it safe to move Ironfist, lifting his head up to apply a temporary patch.

Pharma arrived at the same time as Velocity, who was carrying the spark support machine. “First Aid’s coming with the gurney!” she said.

“Good. Bring it here then keep out of the way. Pharma, what the hell took you so long?"

"I was out stretching my wings, so I had to wait for landing protocols--"

"I don't actually care, get over here and finish applying this patch while I set up the spark support.

Velocity passed the disk-shaped machine to her teacher, then retreated to one corner and watched with wide eyes as the two medics worked.

Knock Out glanced at Pharma to make sure he was busily applying a patch and welding it, then he tinkered with the spark support machine for a few moments, prying open a panel on the side and rearranging a few wires before attaching it to the little Vehicon's chest and powering it up.

When First Aid arrived with the gurney he and Velocity helped lift Ironfist onto it, keeping him as still as possible, then stood out of the way as the two medics rushed him towards medbay.

\---

"Wow, good call, Prowl."

Prowl watched on the viewscreen of the _Leading Light_ as his old patrol shuttle was blasted to pieces by the planetary defense system, with the Constructicons gathered behind him.

“Someone down there wanted us dead.”

“Bet you anything Pharma has them all convinced we’re the bad guys here.”

"How do we get down there if they've got little space lasers to shoot us out of the sky?"

“We simply fly through the holes in their defenses and land well outside of the city,” Prowl said, barely listening to the Constructicons’ chatter.

“There are holes?” Bonecrusher leaned over his shoulder, trying to look at the screen.

Prowl put a hand on his face to push him away. “Yes. I’ve spotted three already. Whoever designed this system is an idiot.”

Instead of trying to see over Prowl's shoulder Bonecrusher settled into the co-pilot's seat to watch him work. "Nah, I think it's just 'cause you're super smart," he said, "Probably no one else could have found those holes."

"I'm far from the smartest Cybertronian--on either side. I can think of seven other people off the top of my head who have the necessary training and skill to have spotted them, and four of those people are 'cons."

"Feh, I bet most of 'em are dead after the war."

"Regardless, it's not safe to assume that no one could breach Cybertron's defences when--"

Prowl cut off suddenly, watching a screen displaying readouts carefully. "They've just shut down the planetary defense system. This is our window; the sensors will be scrambled enough that we can slip through one of these gaps before they know another shuttle is approaching."

The Constructicons gathered around to watch Prowl fly, much to his annoyance.

\---

"How is he?" Ultra Magnus asked, ducking his head as he entered the medbay. He had remained in the monitor room when the medics wheeled Ironfist out, checking systems and reviewing security footage for anything that might help find the saboteur who had attacked his assistant and destroyed the inbound shuttle.

"He isn't," Knock Out answered, gesturing towards a medical table on which a small lifeless body was laid out, colours already fading.

"I see," the commander said flatly, "What happened?"

"His spark gave out before we even got him to the medbay. I told you not to expect much. Vehicons aren't the most robust soldiers after all."

"He wasn't a soldier."

"Miner, then. Whatever."

The commander sighed. "Do you have any useful information that might help catch his killer?"

The chief medical officer shrugged. "Not really. He was shot in the back of the head at point blank range with a standard blaster. There are hundreds of them in the city; every combat Vehicon has at least one installed, and so do all of you Autobots. Plus I'd guess there are a lot of freeheld ones around, though they're probably locked up in an armoury somewhere."

"What about _when_ he was shot?"

"With the amount of energon he'd already lost--probably around half an hour before you found him."

"Will you perform an autopsy?"

"No. I already checked and scanned him for other injuries, there's nothing out of the ordinary aside from, you know, the hole in the back of his head. I'm just going to get First Aid and Velocity to deal with the corpse."

"You're going to have your _students_ handle the body rather than do it yourself?"

"One student. First Aid defected, remember?"

"Knock Out..."

"Yes. Yes, I am going to have the students deal with the corpse. They have to learn sooner or later. Say, do you know if this one had any special requests for his remains? I know some of them have been adding 'in the event of my death' things to their files."

Ultra Magnus had to check the files on his datapad; he hadn't looked at the Vehicons' files since Ironfist took over updating them. He was surprised at how much information was added to them now. Detais like distinguishing features, service history, and preferred pronouns. He shook his head. "He left no instructions."

"Good. In that case, I'll have Velocity and First Aid recycle him right away."

"Recycle?"

"Sure, didn't you know the Vehicons all have interchangeable body parts? Stripping this guy of parts means we've got bits to fix the next guy who loses a limb or..." he waved one hand vaguely at Ironfist's corpse "...whatever."

The commander's eyes narrowed with distaste. "That seems like a very callous thing to do to a fallen comrade."

"Well, do you want to make the thousands of different molds it would take to make replacement parts? Because I don't really have time for that, between the string of incompetence-based construction accidents and trying to teach at least one student. Besides, these days if they really don't want to be recycled they can make a request in their file, so it's not like I'm doing this without consent... anymore."

Magnus folded his arms over his chest. He was practical enough to know that insisting that Vehicon bodies be laid to rest properly could cost lives later on, but the idea of cutting up a dead body for parts still didn't sit well with him. "Just... try to be respectful of the dead. And don't leave the students to do this by themselves, understand?"

"Yeah, sure, fine. I'll help them."

"And I want a full report containing any information which might be useful in the investigation sent to me by sundown."

"Will do, boss."

Ultra Magnus turned on his heel and had left the medbay. The doctor shrugged to himself and started on typing up a report while he waited for Velocity and First Aid to arrive.

Autobots. So squeamish about the dead.


	2. Chapter Two

First Aid carefully sorted bits and pieces of Vehicon into boxes and labelled them with a shaky hand, while Velocity finished taking apart the dead Vehicon. Knock Out hadn't lifted a finger to help either of them; he's sat in a chair across the room watching without even so much as offering a word of advice. Velocity suspected someone had told him to help, otherwise he wouldn't be so studiously avoiding doing so.

She sliced away a length of wire that connected the spark chamber and brain module, then wiped the energon off her hands with a cloth. "I think I'm done. I assume we can't recycle these bits..."

Knock Out finally shifted out of his disinterested slouch and sat up to look. "Yeah, the spark chamber and brain module can just be thrown out or whatever. They're useless now. Can't even be melted down for scrap."

"Maybe we could bury them," First Aid said, coiling the wire onto a spool for storage, "Give him a proper send off..."

"Do whatever you want with them. I really don't care. Velocity, you're done for the day. Good work. First Aid, you're on cleanup duty. Get the equipment cleared away and scrub the energon off the gurney before it sets."

"What? But-"

"I'll stay and help," Velocity said quickly, "I don't mind."

“Nonsense!” Knock Out wrapped an arm around her shoulder and steered her towards the door, “You’ve been on duty all day! You must be so tired, you poor thing.”

“I’m not, I’m fine…”

Knock Out ignored her protests and pushed her out the door. “I want this room spotless,” he said to First Aid as he followed and closed the door behind them.

\---

The Spacebridge spun into existence, three days ahead of schedule. Ultra Magnus ignored the faint unease he felt at disregarding the schedule; this was an emergency, and exceptions can be made in emergencies.

The comms system crackled to life once the bridge was fully formed.

“ _This is Unit E, Smokescreen speaking. What’s the reason for calling early, Cybertron? You miss me?_ ”

“ _You’re failing to follow standard protocol for an unscheduled spacebridge, Soldier,_ ” Ultra Magnus informed him stiffly.

“ _Ah, Ultra Magnus, Sir. I, uh, didn’t realise it was you._ ”

Magnus had assumed as much.

“ _Smokescreen, find either Arcee or Perceptor and put me in contact with them. We have an emergency situation here. I’m recalling some of our people._ ”

There was a clattering sound and he heard Smokescreen’s voice in the distance, shouting something muffled.

After a few minutes of waiting the comm system was picked up again.

“ _Arcee speaking. What’s the situation, Commander?_ ”

Ultra Magnus’ second in command listened in tense silence as Magnus gave her a brief rundown of events.

“ _...so I need Perceptor, Bumblebee, and Jazz to return to Cybertron,” he finished, “Perceptor and Jazz to lead the investigation, and I need Bumblebee to help cover Ironfist’s duties._ ”

“ _Yes, Sir. Bumblebee and Jazz are out of the base right now, but I’ll have them back to you within the hour. Perceptor is ready to go now._ ”

“ _Excellent. Thank you, Arcee. Is there anything to report at your end?_ ”

“ _Nothing exciting, Sir. Everything’s quiet. No new incidents. Perceptor, Raf, and Ratchet have been chasing down leads, but everything’s coming to dead ends. I think Raf might have finally met his match._ ”

“ _Hmm. Please remain on Earth for the time being and continue aiding Ratchet and Rafael. Keep Smokescreen with you to assist._ ”

“ _Keep him out of your hair, you mean?_ ”

Ultra Magnus frowned. He disapproved of the human colloquialisms which had been creeping into many Cybertronians’ speech patterns.

“ _To give him valuable field experience,_ ” he muttered, and he heard Arcee stifle a laugh.

Perceptor emerged from the green vortex of the spacebridge at that point, carrying a rifle slung over one shoulder and a small stack of datapads in one hand.

Ultra Magnus nodded at the scientist and wrapped up his conversation with Arcee.

“ _Send the others back through as soon as they’re ready. I’m returning to my work._ ”

“ _Right then. Good luck, Sir._ ”

“ _And the same to you._ ”

\---

"Pharma." Ultra Magnus ducked into the medbay, a huge frown stamped on his face. "What is so important that you had to call me to the medbay during an active investigation? ...And I was under the impression that you were barred from medbay except in cases of medical emergencies.”

"This might just count," Pharma answered. He and First Aid were gathered around one of the medical tables, with a familiar looking piece of machinery sitting in its centre. "First Aid called me here to double check something he had found. Some damage to this device. And, I'm afraid to say, I believe he's absolutely correct."

Magnus turned to the medical student, who was only a little over half the height of his teacher. "Tell me what you found, then. Quickly."

The medical student cleared his voicebox nervously. "Well, Commander, I was clearing away the medbay after... after... you know..."

"After Ironfist's death." Ultra Magnus' expression changed from a frown to a scowl, and First Aid quailed.

"I found this..." he pointed at the device on the medical table, "The spark support machine. The one Knock Out used on Ironfist, because he said his spark was failing..."

"Yes. I remember. I was there when it happened."

"Right! Of course! Well..." First Aid carefully turned the large, disc-shaped device over, revealing the side with the controls on it. "See these scratch marks where the casing was opened? And some scorch marks here and here..."

Ultra Magnus leaned down to get a closer look. "I see them. What do they mean?"

First Aid audibly vented some atmosphere. "It's sabotage. Very deliberate. Whoever did it knew exactly what they were doing... You know how all sparks spin clockwise, and they need to keep spinning to remain active? Whoever tampered with this reversed the direction of the spark support machine's spin, so it would have snuffed out a spark faster, rather than supporting it."

The commander's head snapped back as he stood up straight, his eyes widening. "You're saying that Ironfist would have survived his injuries. That Knock Out deliberately made sure he didn't."

"We... think so," Pharma said, avoiding meeting the commander's eyes, "The device was very definitely sabotaged, and I had a look at the medical scan Knock Out took. From what I could tell, there was a chance that he would have survived, though... part of the scan was deleted. There was no data regarding the condition of his spark."

Ultra Magnus frowned. "The last call Ironfist made before his death was to Knock Out... Although all this doesn't necessarily mean anything. We don't have any real evidence that Knock Out was the one who sabotaged the device, nor that the damage was intended for Ironfist."

"Well... it would be difficult for a trained professional to miss such obvious damage to such an important machine. Either he knew it was there and ignored it, or he missed it in the heat of the moment."

"Which makes him ill-suited to be our CMO, either way," Magnus said, tapping his fingers on the medical table, "First Aid, I need you to bring this machine to the people I have investigating Ironfist's murder and the destruction of the unknown ship entering our airspace--Perceptor is in charge."

He pinged their location to the medical student, who carefully picked the device up and shuffled out of the medbay. Magnus waited until he was gone before continuing the conversation.

"In the meantime, I think it best to stand down Knock Out, at least temporarily. Pharma, I need you to step in as acting CMO for the foreseeable future and take on Knock Out's duties."

Pharma's eyes widened. "Is it fair to do this without investigating first? I mean, given the damage to the spark support machine my first assumption was that Knock Out did it, given his profession and former loyalties, but I'm self-aware enough to understand that might come from prejudice. I don't want him to be stripped of his position unfairly..."

Ultra Magnus put up a hand to interrupt him. "For now it will be temporary. Once we know for certain what happened, Knock Out will be restored to his position should he be found innocent. If not, you will have to take on the role permanently, I'm afraid. I understood you were looking to set up a small civilian clinic of your own, but that may not be possible for now."

"...it's alright. I will do what needs to be done for the good of the cause, of course. I just wish the circumstances were better..."

"We all do. Now, I have other matters to attend to, and I must action Knock Out's temporary stand down. Please excuse me."

"Ah, of course. I hope all goes well, Commander."

Pharma waited until the commander was safely out of the room and the door closed behind him before he allowed himself a small smile. Between this and the fact that the only call log he'd left from the monitor room was between Ironfist and Knock Out, the doctor didn't stand a chance.

And he hadn't even had to engineer this particular piece of evidence. The 'con had done it all on his own. Pharma had no idea why Knock Out would want a fellow Decepticon dead, but it didn't really matter--so long as he got the result he wanted.

\---

Thundercracker and Skywarp transformed as they came into land, neatly rolling and coming to their feet, then jogging for the command centre without missing a beat.

“We’ve got something weird to report to the Commander,” Thundercracker said to the Vehicon on guard at the hangar door, who waved them through.

They found Ultra Magnus in his office, looking over mountains of datapads with a face like a thundercloud.

“Sir?”

“What is it, Thundercracker?” he asked without looking up.

“We found a shuttle out in the wastes.”

“Derelict?”

“Nah,” Skywarp said, sending a request to the commander via comms to send him some pictures, “It looks like it’s fully functional, and like it just landed, but we’d know if someone approached Cybertron, right?”

Ultra Magnus accepted the request and studied the photos, zooming in on the name.

He went still, dropping the datapad he’d just picked up.

The name read _Leading Light_.

“Thundercracker, Skywarp, I'm sorry to ask this of you, but as soon as you've refueled I need you to go back to that shuttle and do a more thorough investigation,” he said, even as he sent a command via comms to the monitor room to put the city on high alert, “Check for flight logs, signs of who was onboard, where they might have gone--anything." He called up Ironfist's extensive files on the Vehicons on his datapad and skimmed through the cross-reference system for skills. "Take Slipstream with you, tracking is her specialty.”

Thundercracker groaned. “Does it _have_ to be her?”

Ultra Magnus stood up, towering over the two flyers. “Thundercracker, this situation has the potential to be far too dire to waste time on petty rivalries, am I understood?”

The high alert ping went out at that moment, emphasising his words, and the two flyers glanced at each other nervously. “Commander… whose shuttle is this?”

The commander paused for a moment, considering whether to answer the question, then finally nodded to himself. “I see no reason to keep the secrets of long dead Autobots. There’s no way to be certain without further information, however I know that shuttle belonged to the _Lost Light_.”

“What, the Autobot flagship that went missing?”

“Yes. It could be a survivor, or a scavenger. It could be almost anyone, but the _Lost Light_ was transporting a prisoner on the orders of the head of the Blackops division. Our worst case scenario is that Overlord was onboard that shuttle.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell how much of this story I planned and how much I'm making up as I go along? It's about fifty-fifty.
> 
> Ok, that's a lie. I planned maybe 20% of this.


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, sorry for the wait! I've actually written down some honest-to-goodness *plans* for the next few chapters, so maybe they won't take as long to write..?

Word of Knock Out coming under suspicion got around quickly. Pharma very subtly made sure of it, having a hushed conversation with First Aid just within hearing of the Vehicon who ran the energon dispensary, well known to be the universe's biggest gossip.

The gossip shared a frame type with Ironfist, one of a very small number of small-sized mining class Vehicons who had survived the war. This meant that he was tiny, and not much use for the construction work most of the other miners were doing. Like Ironfist, he had been given alternative duties, ones he was more suited to.

He normally chatted away cheerfully as he was serving hungry workers their rations, sharing the news of the day, but today he was subdued.

"Hey, tiny," said a massive, irritated looking jet-framed Vehicon who had approached the counter with his empty cube, "Have you seen the other little guy around today?"

"It's  _ Swerve _ , not  _ tiny _ , and which one? There are four of us. Try using our names!"

"Ironfist. He was supposed to meet me here  _ last _ shift, but I guess he got busy with the new arrivals or something?"

Swerve's expression froze, and he carefully put down the energon cube he was refilling. "You mean you haven't heard?" he asked gingerly. The jet was huge, and Swerve  _ really _ didn't want to be the one who had to break the bad news to him.

The big jet frowned. "I've been out on patrol for twelve hours. Just tell me what happened."

The minibot took a step back behind the counter, looking around the main hall to make sure there were plenty of other people around in case the jet tried to shoot the messenger.

"Ironfist was attacked in the monitor room so whoever it was could use the defense system to destroy an inbound shuttle. He's--"

"--He's in  _ medbay _ ?" the jet interrupted to ask, worry chasing the irritation off his face.

"No, he, uh, he died on the way. Spark failure. I'm so sorry."

The jet looked like he'd been hit with a stasis grenade, freezing in place with a shocked expression. Swerve had just started contemplating calling medbay when he suddenly moved, reaching across the counter to pick the tiny Vehicon up with one hand.

" _ Who did it? _ " he demanded.

"I don't know! Perceptor is still investigating!"

"You must know  _ something _ ," he snarled, shaking Swerve slightly.

"No one knows who shot him! But I heard that Knock Out's been arrested because they think he let Ironfist die on purpose!"

"Hey! Thundercracker! Put the little guy down!"

The cavalry had arrived, and Swerve sighed with relief as a couple of jets--Slipstream and Skywarp--grabbed Thundercracker by the arms and dragged them behind his back. Slipstream caught Swerve as he fell and dropped him safely behind his counter.

"Let's go see Ultra Magnus about this, you jerk," Slipstream said as they pushed his assailant out of the room.

\---

Velocity hammered on her teacher's door. "Open up! Knock Out, let me in! I need to talk to you!"

The door remained resolutely shut.

"I know you're in there! We'd have gotten an alert if you tried to leave! Listen, this is  _ really _ important!"

Nothing.

"Ok, fine! I'm using the override codes!"

Not that she actually  _ had _ the override codes for the door. After a few moments of silence, she sighed. She was going to need help in order to get in.

\---

Unsurprisingly, Brainstorm and Nautica were in the one place they had been specifically forbidden to go: Perceptor's lab.

Velocity stood in the doorway and cleared her voicebox loudly.

The both jumped guiltily and spun around, trying to hide whatever they were working on behind them.

"Oh! Velocity, it's just you."

The pair of them sagged with relief.

"Come check out what we're working on!" Brainstorm said, waving her over.

"Hey, you're still in mega trouble, nerds," Velocity told them, "Don't think I won't tell Perceptor you were in here. He’s back from Earth, you know.”

"Pff, you always  _ say _ that," Nautica said dismissively, “And he’s way too busy trying to solve a murder to bother checking on his lab.”

"Yeah, well... anyway, tell me what you're working on."

"It's called the  _ utiliwrench _ ," Brainstorm said proudly, holding up what looked like a very large but otherwise normal wrench with a lot of extra unnecessary stuff tacked on.

"It has a scanner and a laser cutter and a welding torch and an attention-deflector detector and a quantum field generator and a--"

"Sorry, a  _ quantum field generator _ ?" Velocity interrupted Nautica.

"Well, we haven't got that part working properly quite yet," Brainstorm muttered.

"Right. Uh. Look, guys, I need your help with something."

"Oh, sure." Nautia pressed a button on the wrench and all of the extra bits folded away inside of it. "What do you need, best friend who would never tell on us to Perceptor?"

"I need to get into a locked room. I'm... worried about the occupant."

Nautica and Brainstorm grinned enthusiastically.

"Breaking and entering!"

"We can help with that!"

"We've got just the thing on the utiliwrench, actually!"

Nautica pressed a button, and a small pronged object flipped out of one end. "It's an automatic lock pick. You just put it into the control panel and it'll fry it in exactly the right way to make the doors open."

"...and you just happened to build that."

"Well, we were anticipating that if Perceptor notices we were in here, he'll start actually locking his doors."

Velocity stared at the two of them, who seemed completely unphased by her disapproving look. She sighed. "Ok, let's go. And I won't tell Perceptor you have that thing."

"Damn right you won't."

\---

The lock pick worked almost instantly. 

The door whooshed out of their way, then made a sad dying noise as the lights on the control panel blinked out.

"Whose room is this, anyway?" Brainstorm asked, peering into the darkness beyond, "I didn't think anyone lived out this way, it's mostly just storage."

"Well, uh, it's Knock Out's room."

" _ Knock Out's  _ room?" Brainstorm said, bouncing slightly, his yellow eyes flashing with excitement.

"...wait, did we just help you break a criminal out of house arrest?" Nautica asked, without a hint of worry or disapproval in her voice.

"No, I just really need to talk to him. About, uh, something."

"Right, not suspicious at all." Nautica was grinning broadly at this point.

Brainstorm ignored his two friends and ventured into the room, feeling for the light switch.

"Uh, guys? Better come look at this..."

Nautica and Velocity stepped into the now-bright room, and stopped, staring.

"Is that..."

"...a giant hole in the wall? Yeah. I think he might have escaped..."

"Well, this explains why he wasn't opening the door," Velocity said miserably.

Nautica made her way over to the hole, carefully avoiding the messy piles of junk on the floor. "I guess he cut through with his sawblades. They must be made out of something special to cut through metal walls so cleanly..."

She ran her hand along the rough edge the cut had left. "The wall's still warm from the friction, I bet he hasn't made it far. We should report his escape to the guards."

"...no," Velocity said quietly, "I have to find him before he gets himself into any more trouble."

\---

Thundercracker slouched back towards the residential wing of the complex. Skywarp and Slipstream had been sent back out to scout the shuttle, but Thundercracker was on a "temporary stand down" due to "unstable behaviour caused by a recent loss", in Ultra Magnus' words.

The jet sighed. All in all, the commander had actually been very understanding. He'd expected something much harsher after essentially attacking someone a quarter of his size, but Swerve had graciously declined to press any charges, and Magnus felt that his outburst was "uncalled for, but understandable, given the traumatic nature of Ironfist’s death.”

He was supposed to head straight back to his quarters and remain there except to refuel or in the event of an emergency.

But he was still too worked up to spend his next few days staring at his own ceiling. He was experiencing some feelings he was unfamiliar with--like sadness and loss--and some he was very familiar with--rage and hatred--and he needed to work out some of the anger before he'd be able to settle down.

He took a left turn and headed for the training rooms, hoping no one was monitoring the security feed in this area too closely.

As he turned the next corner, he crashed right into a bright red grounder form.

Knock Out.

He was holding his electro-staff and a small carry case under one arm, and had looked rather pleased with himself, right up until he was almost knocked off his feet by the large blue jet.

“Watch where you’re going, Jumbo,” the medic said irritably.

Thundercracker responded by punching him in the face.


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey readers, I swear this fic isn't dead. I'm sorry it's been so long since the last chapter. Almost three months! To make it up to you, here's a chapter almost twice the usual length?
> 
> There was a bit near the end I found really difficult to write, and I ended up leaving it for a while.
> 
> I just want to say thank you for all the people who have been reading this, there were some lovely comments left while I was taking a break from writing it and I really appreciated them (and thank you for reminding me this fic still exists!).

First Aid arrived early for his first ever shift as the acting CMO’s apprentice. Pharma was absent, so the medical student picked up one of the textbooks he was studying and sat down to start on the chapter on common maladies.

He was so engrossed in reading about a particularly nasty rust infection that when the door to the storage room hissed open, he just about jumped out of his plating.

He vaguely recognised the ‘bot in the doorway as the person Pharma had arrived with.

“Hello,” the ‘bot said uncertainly, glancing around the room as if he was expecting someone to materialise and tell him he was in trouble, “I’m sorry, I thought no one was supposed to be here for another hour.”

“I got here early,” First Aid said once his spark stopped wildly pulsing, “It’s, uh, Ambulon, right?”

“Yes. I was just checking stock and reorganising things for Pharma, I was supposed to be finished by the time you arrived so I wouldn't disturb you. I’m sorry I interrupted your study…”

“Don't worry about it! I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced, by the way--I’m First Aid.”

“I know. Pharma told me.”

“Oh. Right.”

Ambulon hurried over to a bench and picked up every one of the supply boxes he had apparently been sorting in one large stack to return to storage.

“I will be done in a moment, then I’ll be on my way,” he said, as the tower of boxes teetered precariously in his arms.

“I’ll help you!”

First Aid scrambled to his feet and went to take some of the boxes, but Ambulon turned away to stop him.

“No, this is my task. You have your own duties, no doubt.”

At that point, First Aid could really only watch helplessly as the box at the top of the pile overbalanced and plummeted to the floor.

\---

The box turned out to contain little jars of various coloured paint for making touch ups after repairs.

Luckily only a few of the jars broke, but from the way Ambulon reacted First Aid would have thought they'd broken a piece of irreplaceable medical equipment. He fussed about trying to clean up the mess and return the remaining boxes to the storage room at the same time, and ended up getting very flustered.

“Look, you put the boxes back in storage then bring some cleaning rags, ok?”

First Aid found very quickly that Ambulon was more likely to respond to something phrased as an order than an offer to help. He hurried off and returned a few minutes later with an armful of rags and a bottle of paint solvent. By then First Aid had rescued all the still intact jars from under the various benches and tables they’d rolled under and returned them to their box.

“Good thinking,” he said, taking the offered bottle of solvent and tipping some over a rag.

It only took about ten minutes to get the mess cleaned up, the remaining jars safely tucked away in the storage room, and for First Aid to make a note of the loss of supplies in the medbay’s inventory. He couldn’t help but notice that Ambulon seemed to remain in a state of low-level panic until all visual evidence of the mistake was cleaned up.

“Thank you for helping,” he mumbled as he and First Aid used the last of the cleaning rags to wipe paint off their own hands.

“No problem, accidents happen. I mean, last month Knock Out broke three bottles of processed energon because he got bored and tried to juggle with them. At least you were trying to help, you know? Oh, you, ah, you've got some paint just here…” First Aid reached out with the cloth to wipe at Ambulon’s arm.

Ambulon froze at the same time as First Aid realised his mistake: it wasn't a splash of paint on his arm--it was a small patch where his orange paint had flaked away, leaving behind Decepticon purple.

A horrified silence descended over the pair of medical students as Ambulon remained frozen with a look of vague terror on his face and First Aid desperately wished he could go back in time and pretend he hadn’t noticed it.

“Look, I… I don't care,” he stuttered, trying to alleviate the oppressively tense atmosphere. “I mean--I can understand if you don't want anyone to know if you--if you used to be a ‘con, and I won't tell anyone if you don’t want, but no one is going to treat you differently, the reintegration act is pretty clear about discrimination…”

While First Aid was speaking Ambulon’s expression slowly changed from horror to confusion. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before finally speaking.

“Reintegration act?” he asked.

“Yeah, you know, Magnus’ mass pardon thingy. ‘Any Decepticon who wishes to live in peace and is willing to relinquish their affiliation with the Decepticon army may live on Cybertron blah blah blah’ or whatever the opening paragraph says, I haven't read it since I first got here. You probably know it better than I do.”

Ambulon’s eyes narrowed. “Ah, yes. The reintegration act. Er, could you tell me, First Aid, do you exactly know how many former Decepticons there actually are on this base?”

First Aid shrugged. “I dunno, a couple hundred? Ask Bumblebee if you really want to know exact numbers.”

“I… I will, at some point. Thank you. I really should--”

Ambulon trailed off and started hurriedly gathered up the small pile of datapads on which he’d listed the medbay’s resources.

“I should really get going,” he muttered, “I don't want to keep you from your studies.”

“Oh, well, have a good day then.” First Aid said, a little disappointed that his excuse to put off reading his textbook was escaping.

“You too,” Ambulon replied as he scurried out the door.

\---

Thundercracker had miscalculated badly.

He was large, even for a Vehicon, and he had, aside from the embarrassing exception of Slipstream, always been regarded as the best in a fight. His strength and size made it easy to overpower smaller opponents, and on top of that he was quicker than most people would expect.

Despite all of this, he had--so quickly that he couldn’t tell how it had happened--ended up on his back on the floor, with the much smaller red grounder--a medic, no less--standing on his chest, holding a crackling electro-staff an inch from his face.

A spark jumped from the staff to his right eye, which fritzed out.

“Are you going to stand down, or do I have to kill you?” Knock Out asked in a bored drawl.

Thundercracker snarled at him, twisting his head to keep his other eye away from the staff.

“You already killed one Vehicon,” he grit out. “What’s one more?”

The medic raised one eyebrow and moved the energy staff back by a few inches, but didn’t remove his foot from Thundercracker’s throat. “You know, I have come to expect that sort of thinking from the Autobots, but you should really know better.”

“I  _ do  _ know better! I remember how cruel you were to us when no one was looking over your shoulder!”

The jet tried to throw Knock Out off by shifting his weight suddenly, but the grounder was too quick. Thundercracker got a new burn mark on his helm for his troubles, and the pointed tip of the grounder’s foot digging into the soft metal between his helm and jawline.

“Yes yes, it was horrible, I’m sure. Quit whining and  _ think _ , for a second--if you have the necessary brainpower. They assume I killed him because I reversed the spin of the spark support machine. Why would I do such a thing, I wonder?”

Thundercracker suddenly felt very, very stupid.

“Ah… I… I didn’t hear that part. Just that you’d killed him.”

Knock Out collapsed his electro-staff and hopped off the jet’s chest, apparently satisfied that he was no longer a danger.

The jet pulled himself to his feet shakily and rested one hand on the wall for support.

“Why… why haven’t you told anyone? Why are you running away? You could just tell them and clear your name…”

“Well. We wouldn’t want anyone to know about you Vehicons’ manufactured pseudo-sparks, would we? Imagine if the Autobots found out that you aren’t real people.”

Thundercracker ignored the sting the words held--he’d heard the same thing hundreds of times in his life. It was more important to focus on the meaning behind the almost habitual insult. Knock Out didn’t seem like the type to keep a secret at his own expense.

“Why do you care?”

“Because, genius, your very existence constitutes a war crime. Either way, I end up on trial again. Might as well go on the run now and avoid having to listen to Ultra Magnus read out the entire freaking Tyrest Accord again, complete with appendices.”

This time Thundercracker couldn’t fight down an angry growl at Knock Out’s words. “So you’re going to run away and let whoever really killed him get away with it.”

“That is exactly what I’m going to do, jumbo, and you can’t do a thing about it. Or have you already forgotten how easily I just took you down?”

The jet’s fingers twitched with the urge to try again anyway, but he forced himself to stay still. “If you don’t tell the commander, I will. Secrets be damned. I’m not letting Ironfist’s murderer get away.”

Knock Out shrugged. “By the time you do I’ll be on the far side of Earth, so you go right ahead.”

“Fine, I will then.”

Thundercracker turned away from the medic, but made the mistake of looking back when the doctor called after him.

“Oh, Vehicon, one more thing!”

The medic’s electro-staff slammed into his face with enough force to leave a dent in the soft metal.

“That’s for scratching my paint,” Knock Out snarled.

\---

Thundercracker could have gone after Knock Out. He certainly  _ should  _ have raised the alarm immediately. But that would require mustering up the willpower to move. His anger had drained away after the fight, leaving behind a sense of helplessness.

He had simply sighed and sat down against the wall in the deserted corridor to check the extent of his injuries.

Aside from a few assorted electrical burns, his cheek had a very painful dent, one of his knees was out of alignment where Knock Out had used his electro-staff to unbalance him, and his right eye was flickering on and off, still overloaded from the electric pulse.

“Oh Primus, are you alright?”

The jet flinched at the sudden noise. He hadn’t heard anyone approaching.

“Here, let me look at that!”

The newcomer tried to pry his hand away from the dent on his face, and he got a good look at her out of his working eye.

“You!” he shouted, pushing her away forcefully. “Stay the hell away from me!”

The newcomer--Knock Out’s little sadist-in-training--looked frightened by his outburst and backed off a few paces, but the two other ‘bots standing behind her broke out into a fit of laughter.

“I think he’s scared of you!” one of them sniggered.

Thundercracker still couldn’t find the strength of will to be angry. “Just frag off, would you? Your teacher’s already done enough damage, I don’t need anything from  _ you _ .”

The laughter from the student’s two friends stopped abruptly.

“Wait, are you saying Knock Out did this to you?”

“ _ Obviously _ .” Thundercracker tried to pack as much anger into the word as possible, hoping they’d take the hint and leave him in peace.

“Did you happen to see which way he went?”

“ _ Excuse _ me?”

“Where Knock Out went, do you know? He’s, uh, not really supposed to be out. I was kind of supposed to be keeping an eye on him, but...”

The student trailed off with an anxious shrug.

Thundercracker narrowed his working eye to a slit. “You’re gonna stop him from escaping?”

“Yes. Well. That’s the plan, anyway.”

The idea of Knock Out having to listen to the entire Tyrest Accord again was too good to pass up. “He’s headed for Earth,” Thundercracker said.

“He’s going to steal a shuttle!”

The little teal jet started off in the direction of the shuttle docks, but the purple submarine grabbed him by the wing.

“No way, he’s probably heading for the space bridge room!”

“He was headed in that direction last I saw him,” Thundercracker confirmed wearily.

“Ok, let’s go! Move it!” Knock Out’s student started pushing her friends down the corridor, glancing back at the injured Vehicon. “Thanks, Thundercracker! Go to the medbay and get First Aid to patch you up!”

\---

“He killed Barricade!” an unfamiliar voice exclaimed.

Knock Out pointed a blaster at whoever had just walked in the door without looking up from the control panel he was trying to break into.

“Up against the wall and stay quiet unless you want to join him.”

“Knock Out, please tell me you didn’t kill the guard.”

Now  _ that  _ voice he recognised.

He paused in his work to look up, but didn’t lower the blaster. Velocity was standing in the doorway with her two excitable young friends flanking her, one of whom was prodding at the guard’s prone body with one foot.

“He’s fine, he’ll wake up in a few hours with a headache. I don’t want to give you Autobots any  _ more  _ reason to hunt me down.”

“‘ _ You Autobots _ ’? Jeez, didn’t take you long to renounce your loyalty, did it? The second things go south, you run away.”

“Pfft. You’re smart enough to know I was only ever here because it was better than the alternative. Now stop wasting time and keep the hell out of my way if you don’t want a few new holes in your plating.”

“I’m not just going to just let you run off to Earth!”

“If you wanted any chance of stopping me you really should have brought Ultra Magnus or Bulkhead with you, not your two little preschool friends.”

“Rude!” Nautica interjected. “We’re the same age as Velocity!”

“I’m eight weeks older,” Brainstorm muttered, finally looking up from Barricade’s unconscious form.

Knock Out rolled his eyes exasperatedly. “I don’t  _ care _ . Shut  _ up _ or I'll shoot you.”

Without ever lowering his blaster, he finished prying the top off the control panel for the space bridge and peered down at the wires, trying to figure out which ones would override the locks.

Under the threat of death, Brainstorm managed to remain silent for a whole thirty seconds before the urge to speak became too much. “You’ll never get it working that way!” he blurted out. Velocity dug an elbow sharply into his side.

“Ok then, genius, how do I override the security system?”

“You need to short out the--”

Velocity clamped a hand over her friend’s mouth, but with a blast mask protecting his face this didn’t make much difference.

“--the second and eighth fuses in the power regulator before you can mess with anything on the main panel…”

Knock Out shrugged. “Might as well try it! I’m not having much luck with anything  _ else _ .”

He rummaged a screwdriver out of his toolbox and stabbed it into the power regulator a few times, then stopped to listen to the whine of the security systems winding down.

“Ah-hah! Good call, kid.”

Within a few moments he had the spacebridge spinning into life.

“Nice going,  _ Brainstorm _ ,” Velocity muttered, punching her friend in the arm.

“Ow! I'm sorry, you know I can't resist a chance to show off!”

“Velocity, he's getting away!” Nautica shouted, pointing at the space bridge.

Knock Out was already a vague blur in the swirling green portal.

In that moment, Velocity made a very rushed decision.

“Not on my watch, he's not!”

She threw herself forwards into her alt mode, and tires screeched as she accelerated after her teacher.

“Velocity, wait!”

Brainstorm and Nautica barely had to glance at each other before nodding in silent agreement and running after their friend.

\---

The space bridge leading to Earth cycled down and closed behind them. As it did, a small device hidden under the ramp began counting down to zero.

\---

Pharma returned to their shared living quarters with an air of smug self-satisfaction around him, and Ambulon knew he had done something bad.

Last time he had been like this, Ambulon had heard the following day that a Vehicon had been killed and a shuttle blown out of the upper atmosphere.

At the time the thought of a dead ‘con hadn't really bothered him, but in the time since then he had become increasingly uncomfortable with the idea. He had resolved to tell someone, but when it came to actually leaving his room and walking out into the base to find Ultra Magnus or someone in a position of authority, he'd found himself incapable of doing so.

Now Pharma had done something else, and Ambulon knew it was a bad time to go asking questions, but the need to know if First Aid was telling the truth was overpowering.

“Pharma?”

“What is it, Ambulon? Do you need help with something?”

The doctor had already poured himself a cube of engex, and he sounded downright good natured.

He must have done something  _ really _ bad.

“What's the reintegration act?”

Pharma’s good mood vanished immediately, though the smile didn't leave his face--it just turned into something more frightening.

“Now Ambulon, where did you hear about something like that?”

The former Decepticon resisted the almost overwhelming urge to answer honestly. He didn't want First Aid getting into trouble.

“I just overheard a couple of people talking and they mentioned it.”

Pharma stood up and began advancing towards him. “Is that so? Ah well, I've been meaning to have a little talk with you anyway, since that shuttle turned up overhead last week.” The doctor’s voice suddenly became cold and dangerous. “You wouldn't happen to know how our dear friend Officer Prowl and those disgusting Constructicons might have managed to get loose, would you?”

Ambulon didn't bother trying to protest his ignorance. Something in his mind broke away suddenly, and he knew with horrifying certainty that something awful would happen to him if he didn't escape.

He made a dash for the door but found it locked, and before he could punch in his entry code Pharma had grabbed him from behind and half-pushed, half-thrown him back across the room. He hit the far wall with a painful clash.

“You messed with their stasis locks, didn't you, you little traitor?” he spat, advancing on Ambulon, who was trying to scramble to his feet.

“No, no, I--!”

He was cut off when the floor under his feet lurched, throwing him back to the ground, and a massive, distant roar drowned him out.

Pharma’s grin returned as the fire sirens started going off.

“Don't bother trying to lie, Ambulon,” Pharma said, smashing one foot down onto Ambulon’s chest and pinning him in place, “We don’t have much time before I’m called on to help with the no doubt several casualties, so I’ll just find the answers myself.”

He reached into one of his storage compartments to pull out a thick cable, unphased by Ambulon’s desperate struggling. “You don’t remember what this is, do you?”

Ambulon couldn’t answer, his voice box only letting out static.

“That's alright, I made sure you didn't. I'll tell you what it does. And then I’ll make you forget again, just as always. It's a modified cortical psychic patch. Isn't that interesting? I took a Decepticon scientist’s mediocre invention and improved it. I can't just read your mind, Ambulon--I can  _ change _ it.”

The jet reached down and tore back the cover to the medical jack in the back of Ambulon‘s neck and plugged the cable in, ignoring the con’s increasingly frantic struggles.

“Hold still. You won't remember this hurting one bit…”


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise in advance for the events of this chapter

The bridge opened into a large darkened room, and Knock Out looked around, frowning. “Hello?” he called, “Ratchet? Anyone? I'm just here to visit..?”

He switched his headlights on. He was definitely in the Unit E headquarters. But the equipment was all lifeless, and there wasn't a single guard, Cybertronian or human, to be seen. 

And then someone tackled him from behind.

The blaster he'd so carefully stolen from the space bridge guard was knocked out of his hand and skittered away into the darkness as he landed.

As he landed he rolled expertly, throwing off his assailant.

They both ended up on the floor and Knock Out made it back to his feet slightly quicker, reaching for his electrostaff.

He hesitated slightly when he realised his assailant was Velocity, but then carried through with a swing of his staff, catching her on the shoulder just as she made it back to her feet, not quite knocking her off her feet again, but certainly leaving a dent.

_Then_ he stood down. “Oh, Velocity. Sorry, I didn't recognise you in the dark…”

“Primus, you're a bad liar.” She rubbed at her shoulder and glared at him. “You're under arrest, by the way.”

“Shouldn’t there be someone here?” asked a voice from behind them.

Brainstorm and Nautica were standing in the shadow of the Spacebridge, having apparently snuck through at the last moment.

“Ugh, guys, you were supposed to go for help. Why don't you ever listen to me?”

Both of them shrugged and carried on looking around the bridge room with interest.

Velocity sighed and turned back to Knock Out. “They do have a point… I wouldn't expect the humans to leave their space bridge completely unguarded like this.”

Knock Out nodded. “Both times I've been here there were several armed guards at all times, and Ratchet was always _somewhere_ nearby.”

“There are no signs of Cybertronian life forms nearby,” Nautica announced, frowning down at a readout on one of the many screens on the omniwrench. “Aside from us, I mean.”

“How odd. And such a shame, there's no one here to help you with your attempt to arrest me.”

Knock Out tried to nonchalantly pick up his blaster, but Velocity kicked it away into the shadows at the edge of the room.

The blaster collided with something hidden in the shadows, which made a coughing sound.

Velocity jumped at the noise. “What was that?”

“There's something over there!” Brainstorm said, rushing off to investigate.

“Wait, don't-!”

Velocity was cut off by the sound of gunfire, and Brainstorm squealed as bullets pinged off his arm and left webs of cracks in the glass on his chest.

“Stay away from me, 'Con!” came a tiny, familiar voice.

Knock Out pushed Brainstorm aside and crouched down so that Agent Fowler could see his face. “Hey, meatbag, it's me.”

Agent Fowler's gun wavered for a moment as though he was seriously considering shooting Knock Out anyway, but finally he lowered it.

He was slumped against the wall, tucked away in the corner of the room. Knock Out could see a smear of human blood down the wall, and even with his limited knowledge of biological creatures he was pretty sure they shouldn't rattle when they breathe.

“What are you doing… here… you asshole,” Fowler gasped out.

“Looking for Ratchet, of course. What the hell happened here? Oh, and should we take you to a hospital or something?” he added as an afterthought.

“Don't think I'd… make it. The base was… attacked.”

“Yes, that's obvious at this point. Do you know who attacked you? And where everyone else is?”

“Soundwave,” Fowler said.

Knock Out froze.

“Uh, who?” he heard Nautica ask behind him.

Fowler's eyes blinked closed and his head fell forwards. Knock Out couldn't hear him breathing anymore, and he _definitely_ knew what that meant.

“Is that guy gonna be ok?” Brainstorm asked.

“...Sure,” Knock Out muttered, “he's just sleeping it off.”

After a moment, he scooped the body up in one hand and stood up. “We need to leave immediately. Let's fire up the Spacebridge.”

“What? Really? You're going back to Cybertron?” Velocity asked incredulously.

“Only if I can't find somewhere else to open the bridge to.”

“How… how scary is this Soundwave guy if you'd rather go back and face Ultra Magnus?”

The three youngsters huddled together behind Knock Out as he examined the Spacebridge controls, trying to figure out the weird human interface. There were a lot of buttons and dials, and only very tiny labels in English for each one. He had to squint to read them.

He flipped some switches at random, but there didn't seem to be any power anyway.

“We need to fix this. Now.”

“That's gonna be difficult,” Brainstorm said. He and Nautica were both peering at a readout on the omniwrench. “Power is out to the whole building. The nearest electricity is a power line about one and a half kilometers… that way.” He pointed at the Eastern wall of the Spacebridge room.

Knock Out scowled and muttered some curse words in various Earth languages. “Fine, we'll have to leave the base and try to fix it, then. Anything involving Soundwave is Magnus’ job to clean up.”

“Who's Soundwave?” Nautica asked again, but Knock Out was already striding towards the large Autobot-sized doors at the far end of the Spacebridge room.

When he slid them open, however, there was a loud humming noise and a sudden bright light; an expanding sphere of crackling energy engulfed him.

Velocity only had an instant to react, and she used it to spin and dive at Brainstorm and Nautica, pushing them both a tiny bit further from the energy.

The three of them crashed to the floor and Velocity felt the tips of her toes starting to tingle before the light vanished.

There was a clattering noise behind them, and Velocity rolled herself onto her back and sat up to look. Her feet felt dead and refused to move.

Knock Out was lying in a crumpled heap, his eyes flickering erratically.

Another human voice broke the silence, this one much more piercing than the first one’s had been.

“Ohmigod it worked! Take _that_ , Sound...wave? What the hell?”

A tiny figure dropped from the ceiling beyond the door and landed lightly, despite the fifteen meter drop.

“Who the hell are you three?” it demanded, vaulting over Knock Out’s leg, which was blocking the entrance, and stalking towards Velocity and the others. It was wearing an opaque facemask and black armour, and Velocity found it _extremely_ unsettling.

“We come in peace!” she blurted out.

“Smooth,” Brainstorm said in Cybertronian, but he shuffled closer behind her regardless, as did Nautica.

The armoured human continued advancing. “I can see you all have Autobot badges, but the fact that you're here with Doctor Evil over there--” the human pointed its thumb over its shoulder at Knock Out “--doesn't exactly endear you to me.”

“We're not with him!” Velocity squeaked, then cleared her voicebox and continued in a less embarrassing voice, “We just came with him to Earth to make sure he didn't cause any trouble!”

The human stopped its advance and put a finger on its chin as if thinking. “Yeah, that seems plausible,” it said eventually, and suddenly its terrifying demeanor vanished completely. “I'm Miko! What're your names?’

“Uh, um, Velocity. And this is Brainstorm and Nautica. What did you do to Knock Out?”

“Oh, he'll be fine. I rigged a stasis lock grenade behind the door in case Soundwave came back. I wasn't really expecting, you know, reinforcements.”

“Who's Soundwave?” Nautica tried again.

“Only the scariest dude the the _universe_ ,” Miko said without elaborating. “How did Cybertron know to send help? I thought it would take weeks for you to get our distress call without the Spacebridge. And who else came? Mags? Bulkhead? Is Bulkhead here?”

“I’m sorry, but we didn’t get any distress call. We were coming here for… something else.”

“Oh.”

The human fell silent.

“When is Knock Out going to wake up?” Brainstorm asked, somewhat plaintively.

“Yeah, he’ll be just, uh--” the human looked at a device on its wrist, “--another few minutes.”

The four of them waited out the minutes in silence, Velocity trying to move her toes as they started to feel warm again.

Then, very suddenly, Knock Out came out of stasis lock, rolling to his feet and shouting. “Miko! I’m going to _kill_ you!”

“That’s _Agent Nakadai_ to _you_ , asshole,” Miko said sniffily.

“You could have made me squish Fowler,” Knock Out continued, unfurling his fingers to show her the human he was still holding.

Miko stared at him for a long, long time.

“You know he’s already dead, right?” she finally asked. Her voice sounded flat, but it caught a little on word ‘dead’.

“I-- of _course_ I know he’s dead, I’m a _doctor_!”

“ _Then what are you carrying him around for?_ ” Miko screeched at him, her demeanor changing back to terrifying just as suddenly. Velocity, Brainstorm, and Nautica all took a few steps backwards. “Stealing his body!? Kidnapping him one last time for old times sake!?”

Knock Out gave her a disdainful look. “I was going to _bury_ him, as per human custom. I believe you generally prefer to bury _whole_ bodies, not ones that have been squished like grapes?”

At that point, the human tore off her helmet, threw it at Knock Out, watched it bounce harmlessly off his shoulder, then burst into noisy tears.

“Um,” said Kock Out. “There there?”

“Shut up! Just shut up!”

To Velocity’s immense surprise, Knock Out did, in fact, shut up.

He waited until Miko had apparently cried herself out, then handed her back her helmet.

She sniffled and wiped her eyes before clipping the helmet on, then straightened up.

“What happened here?” Knock Out asked her.

“It was a horrible,” she told them, her voice still shaky. “I'm not really sure about the details, but like… we were all standing around talking because Ratchet had some new lead or something, and then there were a bunch of explosions and it came over the radios that the base was under attack. There were a bunch of drones dropping bombs on us. Military drones.

“We didn't know what was happening, but Fowler ordered an evacuation through the Spacebridge. Only… the second Ratchet opened the Spacebridge, another one opened right opposite it.”

“A second Spacebridge? Isn't that how you…”

“Trapped Soundwave in the shadow zone in the first place? Yah. So he emerged from the second portal like… like a demon from hell and immediately started a fight with the Autobots, and Fowler managed to get most the humans to safety through the Spacebridge, but then…”

Everyone in the room glanced at the body Knock Out was still carrying.

“Soundwave grabbed Fowler and used him as a hostage. Opened up the second Spacebridge portal again and made them walk through into the shadow zone. And then he just… tossed Fowler away. That was about forty minutes ago. Fowler had ordered me to stay hidden, so… I did. I grabbed some stasis grenades from the armory, rigged up all the doors.”

“Forty minutes? Primus, if I'd left a little sooner I would have turned up in the middle of all this.” Knock Out shuddered. “Also, how on Earth did you manage to avoid getting caught by Soundwave? He's pretty much impossible to hide from. Believe me, I've tried.”

Miko shook her head at him. “Why am I not surprised that even your own team had problems with you? Soundwave isn't omniscient, you know. If he had’ve been looking for me he probably would have found me, but he never saw me, so he didn't know I was there. I have _this_.”

Miko gestured with a flourish and a dramatic half-twirl towards a device that was strapped to her back over her armour.

“A… large metal frisbee?” Knock Out said sarcastically. He had no idea what Miko thought he should know about whatever it was.

“No, you jerk, it's a stealth unit. Check it out.”

She touched a control panel on the shoulder strap, and vanished from sight.

Brainstorm and Nautica both let out identical squeals of excitement.

“Pretty cool, huh,” Miko said, fading back into view.

“So cool!” Nautica agreed, nodding enthusiastically.

“So what are we going to do now?” Velocity asked, “It sounds like we’re in a really bad situation, and we don’t have any way of getting word to Cybertron, so where can we go? Aren’t we supposed to keep away from humans who don’t already know about us?”

Knock Out shrugged. “I never cared for that rule. I say we get as far away from here as possible and find somewhere safe to hole up until Cybertron receives the distress signal.”

Miko glared up at him, putting her hands on her hips. “Not a chance! We’re going to find Raph and Jack and we’re gonna figure out how to rescue Arcee and Ratchet and the others from the shadow zone!”

“Who are Raph and Jack again?”

Miko stomped her foot. “I know you know who they are! Get a move on!”

She stalked out through the doorway. Velocity found herself following the tiny human, Brainstorm and Nautica in tow, and eventually Knock Out made an angry sound and caught up.

\---

On the way out of the Unit E base, they made one last unpleasant discovery, which scared Knock Out more than anything else he’d seen so far.

Laserbeak was lying discarded in the sand outside of the main doors.

A brief examination revealed the minicon to have died of energon starvation.

“Isn’t it a good thing that he’s lost his surveillance drone?” Miko asked, confused by Knock Out’s grim demeanor.

Knock Out shook his head. “You weren’t around when Buzzsaw was shot down a few thousand years ago. Soundwave went to unbelievable lengths to find the Autobot who made the shot and did horrible things to him. Even by my standards.”

“So… he’ll be out for revenge against whoever trapped him in the shadow zone?” Miko asked, her voice strained.

“Definitely.”

“I need to get in contact with Jack and Raph _right now_.”

\---

First Aid dramatically threw his datapad textbook down on the table. “Primus, how many different types of rust infection _are_ there?” he grumbled.

“Eighty two known ones,” Ambulon supplied. He was running some simple energon tests for Pharma in the medbay while the acting CMO’s student slouched at the table, spending equal amounts of time reading a textbook and complaining about said textbook.

“Jeez, that's a lot. Thanks Ambulon.”

Ambulon frowned at the overly familiar tone the student used, but let it pass. He was young.

The student picked the textbook back up and managed a few more minutes of dedicated studying before he tossed it down again with a heavy sigh.

“Say, did you ever find out how many former ‘cons there are on the base?”

Ambulon looked up in shock at the medical student. He had no idea what he meant by that oddly threatening statement. Was it a strange attempt at blackmail? Did First Aid know? Or was he guessing? Did he think Ambulon knew of other Decepticons who might be hiding in the base?

He tried to remain calm and act casual. “I… I beg your pardon?”

“You said you’d ask Bumblebee.”

Ambulon could feel panic welling up in his spark. “Have we spoken before?” he asked, still trying to play it cool despite the slightly strangled note in his voice.

Now First Aid was peering across the table at him with a worried frown.

“Jeez, Ambulon, you can remember how many types of rust infection there are but not a conversation we had a few days ago? And... come to think of it, last time we spoke it seemed kind of like you couldn’t remember much about the reintegration act. Have you hit your head recently? Maybe you should get Pharma to have a look at it…”

The idea of letting Pharma near his head made Ambulon uncomfortable for some reason, but he shook the feeling off--Pharma had kept him alive throughout the centuries stuck on Delphi. Pharma was Ambulon’s _friend_. Why _wouldn't_ he bring his concerns to him?

Outwardly, Ambulon shrugged. “I'll talk to him at some point.”

“Yeah, that's what you said about talking to Bumblebee. What if you forget you forgot? Maybe I should talk to him for you.”

Again, all of Ambulon’s instincts told him that was a bad idea, but he still couldn't figure out why.

“Could you please not? I don't want to worry him.”

That sounded like it might be true, both to First Aid and to Ambulon.

First Aid nodded dubiously. “Ok, but I seriously think there’s something wrong here. We literally talked like three days ago.”

Ambulon shifted nervously. He didn’t remember any conversation. Would First Aid lie? Was it a prank? A test? An elaborate double bluff to get him to reveal his past allegiance? He didn’t know the ‘bot well enough to judge.

“What’s the reintegration act?” he asked, latching onto what felt like the safest subject First Aid had brought up.

That just made First Aid squint at him with a look of deep concern. “Again, it’s the mass pardon thingy Ultra Magnus made for all the former Decepticons who wanted to live here on Cybertron after the war ended. This is really weird, why do you keep forgetting that in particular? Is that why you’re so jumpy all the time? You know no one cares that you used to be a ‘con, at this point over half the population of Cybertron is…”

_Pharma said we had to keep my past a secret_ , Ambulon wanted to say, but he couldn’t make the words leave his voicebox.

“There are others?” he asked instead.

“Um, _yeah_. Hundreds.”

“How… how did you know that I was…”

“That cheap orange paint you have keeps flaking off… you should let me fix up your paintjob properly, if you want new colours. I’d be happy to help! For all his many other flaws, Knock Out did at least get in a huge stock of really good quality paint. I think he secretly enjoyed helping the Vehicons with their new paintjobs, but he sure complained about it enough.”

“Knock Out’s here!?” Ambulon looked over his shoulder anxiously. The butcher himself, Megatron’s personal medic, was here? On Cybertron? Working for the Autobots?”

First Aid’s concerned look intensified. “Well, not anymore. He escaped to earth a couple of days ago and blew up the space bridge on his way out. How do you not know about this? That’s what that explosion the other day was!”

Knowing full well that it would only further upset First aid, Ambulon still said “What explosion?”

That seemed to be the final straw for the medical student. He slammed his textbook down again and leapt out of his chair, marching purposefully across the room.

“What are you doing?” Ambulon asked.

“I’m going to get the brain module scanner out of storage. We’re gonna find out what’s going on with your head.”

\---


End file.
